Written by: Angelina Brooke (23, – Second Generation of The Family)

Currently residing: Former CIS

I’m 23 years old and have lived every year of my life in the Family. I love it and would have wished for no other way in the world to be brought up. Since I was a child I cherished my missionary upbringing and when I have kids I want nothing more for them than to also be brought up in the same loving lifestyle I was brought up in.

Thus, stating that, it is beyond me how people can concoct such ridiculous fabricated lies about the way kids are abused and un-loved as they are raised in the Family, especially Ricky Rodriguez who never mentioned anything negative about his growing up in the Family until he got into contact with vicious enemies of the Family who contorted, brainwashed and filled his mind with delusions. In all my years I was never abused, I never witnessed anyone being abused and never have heard of any of my friends being abused. I’ve enjoyed a wonderful, loving and most of all emotionally stable life in the Family to this day.

We live to love, that’s what we’re taught and trained to do. Others in the world are trained how to be successful in making money, pursuing fame, popularity or whatever they think will make them happy or rich. In the Family we live to love, that’s all I can say. We believe God IS love and that’s the purpose for our being. Hate is everything opposite of love and is something we strive to rid our lives of. Any sensible person knows hate is destructive, oppressive and eats away at your soul.

The handful of people who have left the Family and have become embittered have made it their lives’ goal to stop us from loving others and try and throw as much dirt at us as possible. Why? Because they’ve chosen a different path and want to live for something else that’s worthwhile? I don’t think so. I think that the reason they have turned against us with such a hatred is that they’ve not only let go of God and of His love but stomped on it and spit in His face so that the only thing they can turn to is hate, bitterness and hurt.

In my opinion, if one wants to find a dangerous sect in this world which should be gotten rid of, HATE would be the prime ingredient of it, not pure love. What you find in the Family is love, what you find in Daniel Rossel, Philip Sherwood, Sam Ajemian, Ricky and others like them is HATE. Their main goals in life seems to be to hate the Family, speak extremely negatively about us and turn others blindly against us as they’re proving through making such a big ruckus and “sensation” out of the recent tragic events which conspired between Ricky Rodriguez and Angela Smith.

Who is more likely to be a menace to society or descend to the lowest level of human nature by killing someone? Those who are giving their lives to help others by living in third world countries, giving of themselves daily, even forsaking loved ones and families in their home countries choosing rather to go as Christ did and minister to, give a helping hand, and love those less fortunate than themselves? OR those who sit behind their computers, cradling their self-made hate and who thrive in letting it breed, fester and spread to all those they can possibly convince, talk to or chat with on the internet ?

I’ll leave that to you to decide. But I ask that you decide quickly, lest these vengeful people who talk so willingly of abuse and excuse brutal murder become more and more bold in proclaiming their hate and end up taking the lives of more innocent people.

Angelina Brooke is a second-generation member of the Family International.